Vancouver Arts and Cultures Forum

Vancouver Sun
John Mackie

Photograph by Ian Lindsay, Vancouver Sun

The Marine Building penthouse is, incredibly, more or less intact, although it’s now used as an office.

When it was built in 1930, the Marine Building was the tallest building in the British Empire. To show off its dazzling waterfront view, an observation deck was built on the top floor, with a huge wraparound terrace.

(More…)

Fiona Morrow
Globe and Mail

Vancouver — Thirteen years ago, Charles Barber’s music tutor, Paul Kling – or PK, as he liked to be called – suggested an impromptu drive to Mexico from their homes in California. The trip marked the first time Barber had ever seen his friend without a jacket, tie and vest. But as relaxed as he was that day, Kling, a Czech virtuoso violinist and retired chair of the University of Victoria’s School of Music, did not roll up the sleeves of his white shirt.

“I realized I had spent years indulging in magical thinking,” acknowledges Barber, now conductor and artistic director of City Opera Vancouver. “I knew PK was Jewish, I just presumed he’d escaped the war hiding out in a cave in Switzerland, or something.”

(More…)

The Province
By Christina Montgomery

Agrees to buy, renovate and hand over theatre in exchange for tower

Council is trying to help save the York Theatre, also known as The Raja Cinema. – Photograph by: Arlen Redekop, The Province

Vancouver developer Bruno Wall has offered to spend up to $12 million to buy and restore the historic York Theatre, now slated to be torn down Jan. 15 to make way for townhomes.

Wall has also offered to hand ownership to the city — in exchange for development rights equivalent to a 20-storey building, to be built on an as-yet undetermined city site.

The 500-seat theatre, opened in 1912 near the north end of Commercial Drive, was home to the Vancouver Little Theatre, where a number of local actors launched their careers. It later hosted musical acts and Bollywood films.

But it has been empty for several years. EDG Homes bought the property for $960,000 in August 2007 after being assured by city staff that there was no historical significance or interest in the theatre.

The city has approved EDG’s townhouse proposal, which is now eligible for building permits. Demolition of the theatre is legally permitted as of Jan. 15.

Yesterday, EDG’s Peter Phillips warned council that ongoing development costs and liabilities would force him to demolish the theatre and proceed with the townhouses if no deal for a sale is completed.

In March, the city’s attitude toward the site changed. The Vancouver Heritage Commission ruled that it was eligible for listing in the Vancouver Heritage Register.

Arts groups that want the theatre saved argued its restoration would provide the hub for a cultural district when combined with the nearby Vancouver East Cultural Centre and the cafes and galleries bordering Commercial Drive.

Yesterday, after learning that Wall had stepped forward with cash that arts groups and theatre fans have failed for years to raise, council agreed to offer Wall the unusual density deal to encourage him to proceed with the purchase.

Heather Redfern, director of the Vancouver Eastside Cultural Centre that would run the new theatre, applauded the move.

Redfern described the theatre as “the perfect place” — an ideal, mid-sized venue that would provide affordable space for small projections and art showings in a city where theatre space of any kind is at a premium.

cmontgomery@theprovince.com

Friday, January 18, 2008
Vancouver Courier
By Cheryl Rossi

Time is running out for those keen to save the York Theatre

The York Theatre on Commercial Drive once home to Vancouver Little Theatre Society – Photo – Dan Toulgoet

If city council doesn’t get behind a campaign to save the building that was most recently the Raja Cinema, it could be demolished within four months, says Tom Durrie.

That’s why Durrie, founder of the Save the York Theatre Task Force and former manager of the Pacific Baroque Orchestra, is arranging meetings with individual councillors. Tom Durrie heads up the task force that hopes to save the York Theatre, more recently known as the Raja Cinema, which was built in 1913.

(More…)

December 6, 2007
News from the arts world
Georgia Straight
By Jessica Werb

Townhouses planned for York site The new owners of the York Theatre on Commercial Drive plan to replace the theatre with eco-friendly townhouses.

Paul Phillips, president of EDG Homes Inc., which purchased the property last October as Vintage Development Corp. with business partners Small Favours Pictures Limited and 0805122 BC Limited, told the Straight he is not interested in preserving the theatre.

“Our interest is to develop an environmentally sensitive, LEED-certified townhome development there—a cutting-edge property in line with the EcoDensity of [Vancouver mayor] Mr. Sullivan’s dreams,” he said by phone. “It will be townhomes with attached garages, with roof gardens and low-toxicity materials.”

Phillips said he and his partners will submit their plans to the city within the next week or two, and expect development to begin in May or June this year.

(More…)

December 6, 2007
News from the arts world
Georgia Straight
By Jessica Werb

The new owner of the York Theatre on Commercial Drive is set for a face-to-face meeting with advocates of the venue’s preservation on Thursday morning (December 3) at Vancouver City Hall, under the auspices of the city’s planning department.

According to Tom Durrie, former general manager of the Pacific Baroque Orchestra and leader of a campaign to save the York Theatre from demolition, the new owner of the property is Paul Phillips of EDG Homes Inc. Durrie said he has rounded up a group for the meeting, including the Vancouver East Cultural Centre’s executive director, Heather Redfern; architect David Galpin of Downs/Archambault & Partners; and Philip Boname, president of development planning firm Urbanics Consultants Ltd. “I think we have at least accomplished getting the whole thing on the city’s agenda,” Durrie told the Straight.

(More…)

Globe and Mail
Trevor Boddy
tboddy@globeandmail.com
December 29, 2007

Recently, some of the region’s most historic buildings have fallen victim to the wrecker, smashing to dust an irreplaceable part of a city’s soul. Is there any way to save the remaining architectural masterpieces?

It was downtown Vancouver’s last building that could remind us of the 1930s – a whirling wedding cake of streamline stucco that most of us knew as the Fido outlet at Georgia and Richards, first built as the Collier Auto Showroom. It got knocked down early one morning during the civic strike, leaving one more empty-tooth slot in the mug’s face of downtown.

Then, on Dec. 6, the wrecking crews went to work on one of Arthur Erickson’s most world-renowned and influential houses, a grand sequence of portals and frames elegantly descending down a Horseshoe Bay cliffside. This 1963 house for David Graham was featured on the pages of Life magazine and leased as a love nest to Warren Beatty and Julie Christie when in town to shoot Robert Altman’s McCabe and Mrs. Miller.

(More…)

Globe and Mail
By Marsha Lederman
Publish Date: October 13, 2007

For Vancouver artists, an Olympic challenge with the games just over two years away, the city is facing a stark shortage of venues to show off Canadian culture

At a recent event at the Vancouver East Cultural Centre, respected former Vancouver city planner Larry Beasley informed the audience that, while the city may be world-renowned for its urban planning, it has almost no international cultural reputation. “Honestly, we are not even on the charts in terms of the growth and support of our cultural institutions,” he told the crowd. “[It's] an issue I think we are far behind on.”
(More…)